Microsoft Community Contributor

The only good thing is that a week ago I set up my e-mail to place all my posts from Windows forums in a folder named Windows Forums, automatically when they come in.

So at least they are all in one folder and not mixed in with my regular mail. The funny thing is that I did it because of the Linkback posts being mixed in with all my other mail, but I didn't expect this. LOL

I'm using Thunderbird but you can probably do this with other clients as well, it's very handy to have some of your mail presorted.

Staff MemberPremium Supporter

I traced the problem tonight to a site that is mass-copying our content and using it as their own. All existing linkbacks have been deleted, and we have disavowed the links via Google. Further investigation is in order. We are in the process of filing a formal complaint with Google. It looks like they stole over 10,000 pages worth of content to monetize on themselves. This is also known as content stealing/website hijacking and content scraping. I am in communication with Google now, but it may actually be necessary to identify every single URL that was copied. In this case, the registrar was also copied.

Nonetheless, members here will not receive linkback e-mails or notifications, but there was a reason flooding was taking place (the pages were being harvested). Thank you for this notification.

Dear Sir or Madam,

I have come upon your website/blog, [removed], and have noticed that you have duplicated nearly ten thousand or more pages of original content that was located on my website, windows7forums.com. This duplicated content is located throughout [removed]. Please remove this content immediately as it is legally owned by windows7forums.com as an entity as clearly listed on the bottom of every page, and in our Terms of Service atForum Rules - Windows 7 Forums.

We have filed a DMCA request for a removal of the sample material and have also contacted your registrar regarding this problem. Further, we have IP blocked your website and initiated preventative measures for continued copyright infringement from your website.

Staff MemberPremium Supporter

No, it is more or less people from Turkey and Vietnam trying to copy stuff directly off the page, much like Googlebot does. However, they are displaying it as if it is their own creation, in violation of copyright laws and indices. They are pulling the full text off pages and generating their own with third party software, which violates 17 USC § 1201 - Circumvention of copyright protection systems, DMCA, and the original Copyright Act of 1976. There is another perpetrator in Vietnam, but I am working both sides of the coin. I have spent all day working on this issue. The linkbacks are not malfunctioning. They are simply being abused. The goal of the plagiarizer is always to benefit in some way. On the Internet, this is usually monetarily. They harvest as much data as possible, irregardless of context, the author's intent, the financial situation of the host, and so forth, and pretend as if they are providing the solution. In reality, it is duplicate content and a waste of resources on the search engines. The linkback notifications were simply a symptom and not a cause. But they work to enhance the position of a potential intellectual property thief in this regard. Now they have a link coming from us going to them - which is why many sites have abandoned the entire idea (abuse).

I digress that we have taken the extremely unusual step of disavowing the sourced backlinks these sites are providing to Google. This is considered an extreme step, but with these sites simply capturing the full text of entire websites, it is better to disavow any links that lead back to us from them. We are working at the three most obvious levels to resolve the problems permanently. There is no internal security risk whatsoever as the database remains as fortified and secure as ever.